Services : What Can I Write For You Today?

GREAT CONTENT – AND WHY YOU NEED ME TO WRITE IT FOR YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Great content is crucial to the success of your online business.

Very important.

Maybe the most important aspect of your website.

Wait…did I say how vital it is?

No?

OK – it’s vital.

Google has decreed this – and we want to keep Google happy. So how can good content help you and your business to thrive?

GREAT CONTENT WILL…HELP GOOGLE TO RANK YOUR SITE

When your potential customers search for something, they use words. Bear with me. Good content will contain those words BUT (and it’s a BIG but) the content must be relevant, informative and entertaining. A well written article should be all of those. Stuffing content with keywords is so over. And if you try it – Google will ignore you. And that’s bad.

GREAT CONTENT IS…THE PERFECT TOOL FOR GENERATING LEADS

Making good content work for you will

a) get more people signing up to your email list

b) generate more Business Leads

c) make people love you for giving them something amazing to read

What’s not to like?

GREAT CONTENT WILL…GET YOUR BUSINESS PROMOTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

This is big and it’s only going to get bigger. Get your foot in the door…now

HOW BIG IS THE MILLENNIAL MARKET ANYWAY?

Millennials (defined by being aged between 18 to 34 in 2015) are projected to number75.3 million, surpassing the projected 74.9 million Boomers (ages 51 to 69).

WHAT INFLUENCES A MILLENNIAL TO BUY? BE SURPRISED – BEVERY SURPRISED

“The Millennial Consumer“ (a study published in January 2015 by Elite Daily and Millennial Branding) found that (unlike previous generations) when making a purchase…

a) 33% of millennials rely on blogs as their top media source

b) Less than 3% of millennials rank TV news, magazines and books (traditional media sources) as influencing their purchases

c) Only 1% said that a compelling advertisement would make them trust a brand more

SWITCH FROM PAID ADS TO…GREAT CONTENT

Millennials (aka Generation Y) are creating a new way of buying. They were born into a world of technology so they know how to use it and they do use it. They turn to their smart phones and tablets if they want to buy something. Anything. That piece of techno-kit is glued to their hand. It’s fair to say that a large percentage of Millennials are obsessed with social media.

The good news is that if they love something they have bought, they will share it. This is free advertising for you so make sure they are happy customers.

Millennials aren’t just Facebook lovers. They are the largest group of visitors to all social media so it’s really important that your website is already active on all of the major Social Media platforms to attract this audience.

If it’s not, you’re leaving money on the table.

The good news is – I can help.

What Do You Need?

Click each box to read more.

ARTICLES

Articles are an easy way to get good content onto your website. Google currently loves high quality content and will promote it which means a higher page ranking for your Business.

Articles are also a great way to include keywords that your potential customers are searching with. This requires a light touch as keyword stuffing is now frowned upon and considered ‘black hat’.

Long tail keywords are a better way to encompass the search words that your audience use to find you.

Google likes longer articles.

Neil Patel found that articles and posts over 1,500 words received 68% more tweets and 22% more Facebook likes than articles with fewer than 1,500 words.

BLOGGING

As you may have read in the Content is King section, 33% of the huge Millennial market rely on Blogs as their top media source. This year, the Millennial market becomes the largest one out there at 75.3 million – overtaking the Boomers for the first time.

If you don’t aim content at them, you’e leaving money on the table.

Having a blog on your site also means that –

a) You can resubmit your website to Google every time new content is added (or let your whizzy WordPress plugin do it automatically for you). Google loves regular, new content and will reward you by giving your site a higher ranking.

b) You can include more content = more long tailed keywords = a higher search ranking = more customers.

c) You can go into more depth about your product or service

d) You can show a more relaxed side of your business to customers. This helps to build engagement and trust.

Tip: For maximum benefit, Blog Posts should be promoted on all of your Social Media sites.

COPYWRITING

If you’ve ever tried to write your own Sales Copy, you may have hit one or more of the following road blocks:

It sounds too business-like You were aiming at professional but it sounds stilted and drab. You know it needs to sound more natural but you don’t know how to achieve that…and you’re fed up with it anyway.

It sounds like you’re desperate or unhinged You tried to make it sound friendlier and attempted to connect with your readers but now it sounds like you’re a creepy stalker. Get ready for that restraining order…

You can’t describe your product in simple terms This is quite a common issue. You know your technical product inside out but it has to be understood by your customers. They are less likely to buy something that they don’t understand. And people hate feeling stupid so they will probably leave your site anyway – long before they even consider buying.

You don’t know how to describe the benefits of your product or service Your product or service would greatly benefit your customers or clients. You know that but you can’t find the words to tell anyone else without sounding pleading or desperate.

You’ve written a lot but you haven’t said anything On the plus side, there’s probably a great career awaiting you in Politics. When you’re writing to encourage customers to buy, there’s a fine line between sounding business-like and pretentious. Leave out the buzz words, the clichés, the unnecessarily long words and the padding. Less is more.

The last time you wrote anything was in college You hated it then and you hate it now. You can’t write anything because you are paralysed with indecision and a fear of being judged and found wanting.

You’re ready to bang your head on the wall…You understand how vital it is to connect with your customer but it just isn’t happening. You’ve reached breaking point and are ready to give up. How could you ever have thought you could do this..?

The good news is that you know it needs to be better.

If you didn’t recognize that and just slapped your words up on to your site, you’d have a lot more problems than just dodgy writing like –

EDITING

Editing can be done on its’ own or hand in hand with proofreading. It involves reading your content – but here, we’re talking reading it with laser vision – correcting any typos, spelling errors, grammatical errors or downright howlers that make it read in a “say…whaaaat?” way. Once all of the errors have been corrected, the editor will then read it again (and again, and again…) to make sure that it flows smoothly and reads easily.

Of course, you can attempt to edit your own content but it’s always harder to see your own errors. When you’re writing something, you get too close to it, to be able to see it clearly any more.

You’ve probably had the common experience of reading and re reading something until you almost know it by heart. You know it’s good to go. Then as it’s rolling off the printer, you immediately see a glaring error.

Getting a fresh pair of eyes to look over your content can throw up unintended errors that you stopped seeing long ago.

PROOFREADING

Proofreading is a mysterious art involving lots of strange symbols and squiggles. If you’re working in an environment where you use a certain form of proofreading that your editor also adheres to, then this is true. Apart from it being a mysterious art. It isn’t.

Like editing, proofreading involves corrections. It does differ slightly from editing in that the proofreader simply points out where the errors, typos, missed out and misspelled words are and draws attention to those places with the strange symbols and squiggles aka proofreaders marks or symbols.

When proofreading content for someone who wouldn’t understand the marks and symbols, it’s completely acceptable to simply point them out with an underline or a highlight.

When I proofread, the first step is to make a backup copy of your original. This backup copy is the one that I use to point out (or mark up) the parts that need changing. If I’m also editing the content for you, the next step is to make a copy of the marked up page(s). On this copy, I then go through it, replacing the mark ups with the corrections. I would then send you three copies. Your original, the marked up copy and the corrected copy.

If I’m not editing it, you would receive your original and a copy with the parts that need changing, marked up – for you to make the changes.

Not a strange symbol or squiggle in sight. Just beautifully smooth, corrected content, ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. A search engine is a computerised system that allows you to search for particular sites on the Interwebz (technical term).

Everyone has their favourite search engine. Google is acknowledged as the biggest and most influential with Bing and Yahoo bringing up the rear. The Top 5 Search Engines at the beginning of January 2015 were:

1 Google1,100,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

2 Bing350,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

3 Yahoo! Search300,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

4 Ask245,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

5 Aol Search125,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

See how far in front Google is? This is why you need to keep Google happy. Luckily, this isn’t difficult as Google are pretty good about telling us what they like and don’t like.

Many people and website owners got very hung up on keywords for a very long time. So hung up, that ‘keyword stuffing’ became almost universal. This meant cramming as many keywords into a piece as was humanly possible. This often had the end result of making content almost unreadable.

Google is very smart. Google recognised two things.

1) These ‘black hat’ tactics were flooding the Interwebz with total gobbledeegook (technical term).

2) These keyword tactics had to go.

So Google did what it does best. It unleashed a terrifying algorithm onto the Interwebz. In April 2012, Google Penguin strode the net like a colossus – forcing keyword stuffed sites and content to go plummeting down the ratings.

If you weren’t keyword stuffing, this will have been very good news for you. The uber Penguin left quality sites alone. Google’s actions have made the web a much better place because high quality content has been left to flourish in peace.

So the days of working out what percentage of keywords you need in the first ‘whatever’ percentage of your content are long gone.

If you feature well written content that is relevant to your website, product or blog then a few organic, long tail keywords may be naturally included. And that’s ok.

SEO isn’t just about content. It can also include (depending on your needs) –

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media. Two small words that are enough to strike terror into the hearts of the most resilient website owner.

Do you need social media? Will your site perform less effectively without it? Does it need constant updating – at least several times every day? What – every one? You mean Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest…seriously?

I’ll try and break this to you as gently as possible but the answer to every one of those questions is a resounding yes.

Just take a few moments to breathe. OK? Sure you’re OK? Your colour’s coming back a bit now…

So – why is social media so hugely important?

If you read the “Content is King” article, next to these boxes, you will recall a phenomenon known as Millennials.

Remember how they love to share? And what’s the quickest and most effective method of sharing? You got it.

The good news is that – used properly – social media can give your website and therefore your business – a great big kick up the ratings.

The bad news (*sigh* why is there always bad news?) is that if you don’t use it properly, it can discourage potential visitors to your website. Since potential visitors are potential customers – that’s a big no-no.

The other news that you need to be aware of is that people can use social media in two ways.

1) To praise your product or service to the skies and cause an avalanche of business to come your way

or

2) To complain about your product or service.

Bizarrely, studies have shown that 2) doesn’t have to be the disaster you would imagine. If you deal with a complaint promptly and courteously and leave that customer delirious with joy – they will get back on social media and sing your praises. Cue avalanche.

Of course, if you don’t handle a complaint well and the customer goes away madder than a wet hen…hmmm, let’s not go there. Suffice to say words like “reputation management”, plummeting sales and foreclosure spring to mind and none of them have a happy ending.

So let’s rewind to the good part. The part where you not only start to love social media but may get a little bit addicted to it…

All you need is someone to get the ball rolling and you’ll have more free advertising from your new millennial BFs than you can handle and everyone skips hand in hand into the sunset.